Toussaint Louverture (1743 – 1803) Leader of the Haitian independence movement during the French Revolution, who emancipated the slaves and briefly established Haiti as a black-governed French protectorate. by eve

1849- Faustin Soulouque, President of Haiti, has himself crowned Emperor. A freed slave, Soulouque had fought in the Haitian Revolution and worked his way up through the military of the new state. Appointed president at age 65 by Haiti's ruling elite because they thought he would be malleable, he surprised them by establishing a secret police and removing old power brokers from their positions through layoffs and/or murders. Soulouque's bid for personal autocracy will last almost ten years.

Jean Jacques Dessalines, hero of the Haitian Revolution. The recent presentation from Black History Studies entitled "Slavery Is Not Our History" detailed many of the ways in which enslaved African people liberated themselves and fought against kidnapping, genocide and mass enslavement in Africa, on board the slave ships, on many Caribbean islands, and in South America and the United States.

Bad@ss of the Week: Toussaint L'Ouverture - leader of the Haitian Revolution. Died in a French Prison, Fort-de-Joux, April 7, 1803. Louverture told his captors. “In overthrowing me, you have cut down in Saint-Domingue only the trunk of the tree of liberty.” “It will spring up again by the roots, for they are numerous and deep.”